Berkeley startup 3D prints memories in lifelike figures

Elizabeth Izatt, an electrical engineering and computer science major who will be graduating from the University of California, slowly turns on a rotating platform as she is scanned in 3-D at the office of Twindom in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2014. Twindom uses the scans to create 3-D miniature figurines of the subject. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)
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Kristopher Skinner
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BERKELEY -- Commencement Day will be over in a flash, but for $39 and a few minutes more, you can forever hold a tiny 3D figurine of your graduating self in cap and gown.

Why confine this proud milestone to a picture frame, ask the founders of a Berkeley 3D-printing startup, when you could look at it front, back and sideways?

"We want you to hold your memories closer by holding yourself," croons their tongue-in-cheek pitch. "Your family. Your friends. We want you to be megalomaniacal. To hold your replica and just ... love it."

Indeed, the founders of Twindom have set up to produce realistic figurines using 3D scanning and printing. In their studio -- a curtained-off corner of a startup incubator space in downtown Berkeley -- their products include a tiny woman holding a tinier dog, a cozy couple and replicas of the founders themselves.

A variety of sizes of figurines are seen at Twindom's office in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2014. Twindom uses 3-D scans to create 3-D miniature figurines of the subject. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)
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Kristopher Skinner
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Twindom founders Richard Berwick, David Pastewka and Will Drevno expect to immortalize some 500 Cal graduates this year, including some who might stop in on their way to Saturday's commencement ceremony.

It wasn't long ago that the three entrepreneurs walked the stage themselves -- Berwick and Pastewka in 2012 with business degrees and Drevno last year with a bachelor's in industrial engineering and operations research.

The three met through a mobile app development contest at Cal, and before they graduated, they founded another company, Dreambox, to develop 3D vending machines. Last fall, after messing around with a revolving shelf and a video-game motion sensor the team switched to "printing people" using depth-sensing cameras, a 3D printer and processing software they developed.

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Enter Twindom: "3D-Printed Humanity."

"After one more rotation, you will be able to relax your face," an automated British voice instructed Elizabeth Izatt, who stood with a frozen smile on a lazy-Susan-like platform.

It -- and Izatt -- spun slowly for 210 seconds as the sensors captured every fold of her black graduation gown, each wave of her blonde hair.

Minutes later, she leaned in to see a preview of the scan -- a tiny version of herself in cap and gown, rotating on the computer screen.

Twindom co-founder and CTO Richard Berwick processes an order for Elizabeth Izatt, an electrical engineering and computer science major who will be graduating soon from the University of California, after she was scanned in 3-D at the office of Twindom in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2014. Twindom uses the scans to create 3-D miniature figurines of the subject. (Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group)
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Kristopher Skinner
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"That's incredible!" she exclaimed.

With her parents coming all the way in from North Carolina for the occasion, she splurged on a $119 "extra tall," 8-inch figurine for them. Her sandstone replica was promised to arrive in the mail within a week.

Twindom aims to set up kiosks around the country offering a high-tech version of the ever popular photo booth.

In addition to physical products, the company is experimenting with animating the scans, and customers can already share videos of their 3D "twins" on Facebook. And despite their Cal connection, they are more than happy to print any school's graduates -- and their families, too.